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Community Debates TG Teacher Alyssa Williams

By Rosalind Bentley
Star Tribune (Minn.) Staff Writer

Contributed by Jodie Miller, Jami Ward and Linda Fitzgerald
November 10, 1998

Background: After teaching for seven years as a man in public schools in South Dakota and Minnesota, Alyssa Williams was soon to spend her first day in the classroom as a woman. Williams was not required to reveal she was transgender when she interviewed in August as a woman to be a music instructor at Roosevelt Middle School. When a parent complained, Williams agreed to go on paid leave until the district could put together a plan to introduce her. The district sent a letter to parents Thursday, and presented Williams to teachers and parents Friday. Williams is the second public school educator in Minnesota to come out as transgender this year. She follows by six months Debra Davis, a media-center director at Southwest High School in Minneapolis.

Minnesota is the only state that affords legal protections against discrimination for those who identify as transgender, defined as people who live as the opposite gender in appearance and behavior but may not have had their bodies surgically altered. Williams said she intends to have gender-reassignment surgery.

A Heated Debate

In an often contentious meeting in the Roosevelt Middle School gymnasium in Blaine, nearly 400 parents, teachers and Anoka-Hennepin School District officials tried Monday night to come to grips with the hiring of a transgender music teacher at the school.

It may prove to be a rocky road.

Flanked by psychologists and district administrators, teacher Alyssa Williams, 35, told her story once again to an audience that was at times sympathetic and at other times nearly hostile. At one point school board chairman Mike Sullivan threatened to disband the meeting if hecklers didn't stop pelting the panelists with comments such as "Yeah, but she's not teaching your kids."

At times the audience members had heated exchanges with each other.

"You're dividing the community!" yelled one person.

"Who are you to judge? That woman bleeds red!" another screeched back.

In an effort to control the meeting's tone, Roosevelt principal Jerry Hansen had people write their questions and comments. Hansen and others stressed that they wanted Williams to be treated respectfully. Even so, at one point, he admitted to the audience that the topic wasn't easy for him to grasp.

"I'm not comfortable talking about transgenderism; I'm up here sweating," Hansen said.

Still, he and others were praised by some parents for tackling the issue.

The two-hour meeting was the culmination of nearly two months of strategizing among the district, Williams and consultants.

Williams, who has taught music in kindergarten through the 12th grade in South Dakota and Minnesota for seven years, interviewed as a woman and was hired in August at Roosevelt Middle School. Before that, all of her vital records and licenses had been changed to reflect her new name as a woman. Later that month, after a school open house, a parent confronted Hansen and asked about Williams' gender.

That led to a two-month paid administrative leave for Williams, while administrators came up with a plan to inform teachers, students and parents of her transition. By law, Williams did not have to reveal her gender because transgender people are protected from discrimination under the state's 1993 Human Rights Act. Minnesota is the only state to offer such protection, which also is extended to bisexuals, lesbians and gays.

Hansen said he had received numerous calls from parents questioning his handling of the situation, and wondering why he didn't allow her to continue teaching. Officials said they wanted to develop a plan because "we didn't want to appear that we were hiding anything."

After Monday's meeting, Williams said she was worried about returning to work on Wednesday but had faith that the children and eventually the parents would accept her.

"I'm pretty tough," she said. "The insults were coming pretty hard, but I'll get through this. All I want to do is teach kids music. I don't want to communicate any kind of agenda."

Although Williams has said she intends to have gender reassignment surgery, being transgender means that a person's gender identity and how they behave and look is the opposite of what their body actually is.

Many in the audience, however, dismissed such explanations, saying that Williams was "confused" and that by keeping her in the classroom the district was perpetrating "religious harassment."

"It's a sin against God," said Tanna Whiteford. She and her husband, Mike, have two children in the school. "As a Christian family, we teach our children that this is wrong. I can deal with it at work if there's someone there like that, but this is in the school. When do we get to say, 'No?' "

Said Mike Whiteford: "My kids are here but not for much longer. If I have to work overtime to put them in private school, I will."

A number questioned the wisdom of explaining the complex issue of transgenderism to 11-, 12-and 13-year-olds. Panelist Sharon Satterfield, a Minneapolis child psychiatrist who also works with a number of transgender adults, told the gathering that kids 12 and younger are not negatively affected.

That did not sit well with parents such as Karla Casey: "I believe all people deserve respect, but I don't like being forced into dealing with this with my kid at age 12. I don't even know if I'm going to let her come to school tomorrow."

To prepare for Williams' reentry into the classroom, administrators came up with age-appropriate curriculum for Roosevelt teachers to use today when they discuss the issue of transgenderism with students. Parents were given a preview of the broadly focused lesson plan in a letter sent home last week. It gave them the option of pulling their children out of their first-period class where the issue will be discussed today.

Kathy Born, who has an 11-year-old at the school, said she told both of her children about Williams over the weekend. She said they were unfazed.

"My 10-year-old said, 'So?' and my 11 year old said, 'What's the big deal?' And to me it's no big deal," Born said. "She's a person just like you or I."

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